Notre musique

Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, Beck, TV on the Radio, Butthole Surfers, Tom Waits, Conor Oberst, Mark Linkous sont quelques-uns de ses fans. Il est également dessinateur dans un style à mi-chemin de la bande-dessinée et des dessins d'enfants.
De nombreux thèmes se retrouvent dans ses chansons : l'amour bien sûr, le diable, la mort, King Kong, les Beatles, Captain America, Casper le gentil fantôme, les pompes funèbres...

Born in Curitiba, Chico Mello studied composition with José Penalva and Hans Joachim Koellreuter, the classical composer who also taught Tom Jobim. Mello retraced Curitiba's immigration route back to Europe and since 1987 has been living in Berlin, where he finds greater freedom for esthetic expression. In Germany he continued his composition studies with German experimentalist Dieter Schnebel and learned Indian Dhrupad singing with Amélia Cuni. He is equally active in Brazil and in Europe, and his work integrates Brazilian tradition with various international avant-garde trends. He has composed for chamber ensembles as well as for orchestras such as the Berlin Symphony, the Cologne Radio Orchestra, and the Bavarian Symphony, and has worked with such diverse collaborators as Schnebel, Brazilian improvising composer/guitarist Silvia Ocougne, songwriter Carlos Careqa, and minimalist rocker Arnold Dreyblatt.

Mello's remarkable new disc, Do Lado da Voz (From the Voice's Side), is his first all-song album. The recent interest in song stems from his studies of Dhrupad and his work with Silvia Ocougne on the CD Música Brasileira De(s)composta (Wandelweiser Records, Germany). Since the early '90s, he's elaborated unusual versions (or de-compositions, as he calls them) of well-known Brazilian songs of various eras. His novel and sometimes startling arrangements alter the songs' tempi, break their rhythm with pauses and repetitions, add samples of old recordings, and juxtapose instrumental dissonance against lyrical vocals, taking the songs out of their original contexts and transforming them into essentially new (re)creations. The earliest recording in this cycle of salvage is "Eu Te Amo" (Tom Jobim/Chico Buarque; 1980), recorded on the CD 7 Artistas do Brasil (GGM Records, Germany) and also included in the new disc. It's scored for voice, piano, clarinets, electric bass, and percussion. The latter is used for punctuation rather than for rhythmic purposes. In "Pensando em Ti" (Herivelto Martins/David Nasser; 1957), strings and clarinets play discrete repetitive phrases, while the vocals are an unpredictable dialogue between Mello's gentle voice and sampled fragments of Nelson Gonçalves' chesty one in the original recording. Noel Rosa's samba "Mentir" (1933) maintains the original rhythm and is given a period feel with acoustic guitar, Mello's intimate singing, and a voice-generated fake trumpet. In another Noel Rosa samba, "Já Cansei de Pedir" (1935), the period-style vocals and saxophone are countered by fragments of Mello's orchestral piece "Amarelinha," performed by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. "Carolina" (Chico Buarque; 1967) is given a quiet vocal interpretation with drone-like guitar and a violin that recalls the sawing of a didgeridoo or a Jew's harp. The waltz "Rosa" (Pixinguinha; 1917) is transformed by slower singing and accelerated polyrhythms, the latter executed by guitars and the Middle-Eastern drum darabuka.

The other side of Do Lado da Voz consists of five compositions by Mello, to which he applies the same de-composition techniques. "Achado" and "Chorando em 2001," both with lyrics by Carlos Careqa, utilize multiplication of acoustic instruments to create an almost electronic ambience. The violins in "Achado" recall Steve Reich's "Different Trains," while the title plays with the name of the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. "Cara da Barriga" and "Valsa Dourada" are triumphs of simplicity, employing silence as an integral element of the composition. The singing here succeeds in being simultaneously straightforward and moving, and is accompanied by guitar and percussion in the former and by piano, violin, and bandoneon in the latter. The disc ends on the alliterative "Paramá" (lyrics by Walnei Costa), where an electronic program of bass, drums, and synthesizer progressively alters the tempo.

Mello's voice is an extremely attractive tenor that he keeps mostly in high registers and low decibels, like a muted horn. It's as unique and intriguing as his musical voice.

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Quand on voit cette vidéo de Kevin Ayers, on comprend pourquoi les punks ont prix le relais des glams

i want this playing on my funeral
superstardeejay il y a 5 mois 3

Joel a écrit:Ces derniers temps, j'écoute pas mal Jackie O Motherfucker.

a more thoughtful vampire weekend guitar with ian curtis singing and some drums backing vocals
ggrthytjuyr il y a 3 mois

Television Personalities: groupe pop et psychédélique londonien fondé en 1977 par Dan Treacy (chanteur-compositeur-guitariste), Ed Ball (guitariste et bassiste) Mark Sheppard (batteur) et Joe Foster (guitariste et bassiste). Synonymes de culte, Television Personalities ne connaissent pas un franc succès mais toujours leur public sait apprécier ces albums empreints de la personalité forte, ambigue, ironique et sensible de Dan Treacy. Fan de Syd Barrett et des Jam, il écrit des albums de chansons pop , à la production plus qu’incertaine (And Don’t The Kids Just Love It, 1981 ou encore le mélancolique The Painted Word, 1984). Television Personalities sont adulés par de nombreux groupes, de la pop alternative à Nirvana. Malgré les disparitions de son leader, les changements de labels (Rough Trade, Whaam !, Creation, Domino) et des line-up différents, le groupe publiera onze albums entre 1981 et 2007.

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